NOSC Spring Event Luncheon

 

Friday, May 30 was the NOSC's (Naval Officers Spouses Club) final event of the season, our Spring Luncheon at the Army/Navy Country Club (link) in D.C.

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We were thrilled that our guest speaker was Dr. Roland Mesnier!

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Chef Mesnier (link) served as the Executive Pastry Chef to The White House for over 25 years, from Carter's last year through Bush 2, as he puts it.
 
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He's well known for his intricate, themed holiday gingerbread houses and pure sugar creations.
 

Everyone was excited to meet him and we were NOT disappointed. He was hilarious!


Didn't the ladies and the club do a beautiful job setting up the ballroom?


Lynn made 16 lemon cakes for centerpieces ~ every one of them sold for a $10 donation. Go Lynn!


The main goal for this event is charity, charity, charity. (And F-U-N!) 

Every guest received a goody bag containing a scone mix from a local Irish restaurant that included the Irish butter to make them (all we have to do is add 1/3 cup cream), some coupons to local businesses and a sweet little cookie baked & hand decorated/colored by Lynn (who made all of the cakes and is also a caterer) in the shape of a Spring flower. We also got a large piece of chocolate with the NOSC logo imprinted on it (if you look closely they are on our bread plates, they are wrapped in silver foil). Deeeee-lish!

(I should have taken a photo of my cookie and chocolate...but I gobbled mine up faster than my shutter speed! Sorry. I'm a piggie.)

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All of the proceeds from ticket sales, gift basket raffles, the purse raffle (below), shopping, etc. go to our student scholarships for Navy kids to go to college.

THIS was my table. For the 3rd year in a row I ran the Purse Raffle, my favorite raffle ever! First of all, a table filled with handbags, you can't go wrong. I love it already. Each bag is $25, all going to charity since the bags were donated. Perfect so far, right? I know! But wait! There's more! You get 3 ginsu knives with each purchase......just kidding..... Inside each bag is a "secret present" that is guaranteed to be $25 or more. There are gift cards, jewelry....one year Mama Kay got an ipod shuffle in her bag.


Here I am in my new butterfly sweater, not posing at all, nope, no way....taking money from a generous soul who is hoping she has the Ann Hand brooch or the $100 gift card to The Carlyle in her new bag. You can see it in her eyes. And you can see in my eyes that if she won the Ann Hand brooch I was going to grab her bag when she was chowing her dessert and speed out of D.C. as fast as my new black wedge shoes would go, daring the cops to catch me! Lucky for her (and me) she didn't win the brooch, so we're still on speaking terms. Disclaimer: I did not stuff the bags with the secret gifts, by the way, Beth (our awesome door prize Diva) did. I had no clue what was inside each. So there.  The rule was: NO PEEKING in your bag until the luncheon begins! At that time, we will all open up our bags together, scream and squeal with delight for good measure and then show off our prezzies to everyone at the table who were late arriving and didn't get a bag of their own. Sorry. But it gets pretty cut throat with the purse raffle. You snooze, you lose. 


This pretty black Chico's bag? Uh-huh, it went home with ME.  Come to Mama, sweet thing, you have a new home. (Inside my bag was a black floral Chico's necklace to match and a $25 Giant gift card...and everyone knows I don't have any jewelry. Achem.....just go with it).


L-R: Jenny, Mama Kay & Me ~ again, not posing for the newsletter at all....


Mama Kay took off to shop at Temptations, our Navy Wives gift boutique, that was set up in the book signing room.


Chef Mesnier autographed books and took photos for 1.5 hours before lunch.


He was a very popular man, surrounded by 150 women...however, I don't think he was complaining  ;o)


He's written three books (link); two cookbooks and one autobiography that I got signed for myself.


Aaawww...he's so cute. I got him to pose for me. See? Stalking does pay off.


There's my seat, next to Mama Kay, and with Pam and her guests. Notice mine is the only goodie bag that is missing because I've already gobbled everything up.  The lunch that was served was not good, however, and I hate to say that. I didn't even want a photo of my plate. That's a FIRST for me because you know how I love to blog about food. I guess it's my "first negative review." Unfortunately, the Army/Navy Country Club is known for it's golf course, not it's food. Sad for those of us who don't golf  :o(

But the company made up for the food. Chef Mesnier spoke to us for over an hour and filled us with wonderful tales of his childhood and fascinating, funny stories from each family that he felt priveleged to serve at The White House. We laughed out loud!

And here's an inside scoop: He has NO love for Martha Stewart. None whatsoever. We saw a continuing slide show as he spoke of his spectacular dessert/pastry creations and we were in awe.

Congratulations NOSC Spring Event committee! Well done! Another great luncheon and a perfect end to our year! One more board meeting next week then we break for the Summer. Where has this year gone?